Growing up fast

Jim Merriken joined the Marines before World War II started. "They snuck that in on me," he said.

He was barely 18, in aviation-ordnance training camp, when he saw his first casualty. A pilot had crashed. Merriken and two others rushed to help, pulling the flier from the wreckage as it started to catch fire. The pilot was already dead.

He went around a corner to compose himself. The pilot's blood was on his clothes. Almost immediately he got a quick lesson in Marine toughness. A sergeant walked up and barked, "Merriken, get yourself cleaned up!"

During the war in the Pacific, Merriken was involved with the battles at Guadalcanal and Okinawa. He worked for Aces Pappy Boyington and Joe Foss. And he got a brush with Hollywood.

He had a cameo in "Shores of Tripoli," in a scene where a drill instructor inspects his rifle. He took a date with him when the film opened, and she was suitably impressed, he said.

Years later, his son bought him a videotape of the film. He played it, and his scene was gone. Left, he joked, on the cutting room floor.

Merriken, 87, lives in Rancho Santa Fe. His story was filmed today onboard the Midway Museum as part of the U-T's Legacy of WWII project. The oral histories of more than 30 veterans will be available later on utsandiego.com.